The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-02-19
TEMPERANCE.
WORSE FOR THE POOR.

Why the Success of the Temperance Move
ment Should Depend Upon Working
Men More Than Any Other Glass.
In reply to an appeal which the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
addressed to the working-men. the Chi
cago Socialists deny that the wage
workers are especially addicted to drink,
and go into an elaborate argument to
prove that such intemperance as does
exist among them is due to harsh social
and industrial conditions. Cardinal
Manning, in recent discussion of the
intemperance of England, made sub
Stantially the same point, so far as the
drinking habits of worl1ing-men are
concerned, though he found the RENE
dy for the evils of drink rather in NOR
al and religious influences, assisted by
certain measures of legislative res
traint, like local option, than in any
change in the constitution of society.
1t can be said of this country, as he
said of England, that the vice of in
temperance is by no means confined to
any particular portion of the communi-
ty. 1t is more prevalent in proportion
among the idle and those in better cir
cumstances than among the wage
workers, though its ruinious effects are
more observable in the case of the
poor.
Here in New York, for instance, it is
safe to say that the Wall street brokers
drink more, proportionately, than the
carpenters and masons who put up the
buildings in which they have their of
fees. The run of merchants drink far
more than their porters, packers and
cartmen. Indulgence which would
cause loss of place to the employed
brings no such penalty to the employer.
The proportion of drunkards, too, is
as great among those who drink in
clubs and expensive bar-rooms as in
those who patronize the cheaper saloons,
and experiments and analyses made by
chemists show that the distilled LIQUOR
consumed in the one is, as a rule, as
injurious as that obtained in the other.
The victims Of a diseased appetite for
alcohol may be better protected from
public observation when they are in the
ranks of the more prosperous, but they
are not less numerous in proportion, as
an accurate census of the victims of
drink still abroad or in confinement
would prove.
But intemperance is worse for the
poor than for the rich, for it carries
with it loss of ability to make steady
living. No man who depends on daily
wages can afford to indulge in dissipa-
ton which weakens his capacity for
labor He might as well cr- the sinews
of his arms. Therefore the sensible
working-man looks on drink as an enc
my to be ceaselessly combated, for it
takes from him not merely the money
he has, but also the power of earning
more, and so consigns him to wretch
edness and degradation. Intemperance
should be left for tho rich fools who
know of no better way in which to spend
the money they are unfit to possess.
Doubtless. too, the conditions of the
wage-worker tend to some extent to
produce deprayed desire for stimu-
lants, and yet not SO much as the con-
ditions of those who live in luxury and
comparative idleness. Steady occu2a-
ton which yields an income sufficient
only for the substantial comforts of life
ought to be more provocative of So
briefly than a life of leisure or abundance
Even if the working-man is tempted to
dissipation on one side, ON the other he
has every inducement to avoid iniuri-
Gus Indulgence, for clear head, steady
nerves and reputation for Temper
ance are essential to success in obtain
ing and keeping work.
Therefore it is the working-men who
should carry forward the great Tenn
perance movement, for Temperance is
IL first necessity with them, and they
can bring the strongest practical argu-
ments in its favor. They should, too,
be less disposed than other men to
listen to excuses for such madness, and
require as the test of real desire for
social improvementwillingness to stand
out against the curse of drink.-M Y